1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic devices and systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to touch sensitive user interfaces for electronic devices and systems.
2. Background Art
Conventional touch sensitive surfaces utilized as graphical user interfaces in an ever-increasing variety of popular electronic devices and systems often provide a less than optimal user experience.
For example, although many electronic games and media are designed to accept three or more user inputs to enable a responsive and detailed interactive experience, typical touch sensitive surfaces only accept single touch inputs or are subject to significant errors in touch sensing or even complete cancellation of inputs when attempting to sense two or more objects in contact with the surface or the multiple touch points corresponding to those objects. Moreover, although some modes of operation may be configured to optimize sensing one type of user input in one context, a specialized mode of operation often lacks desirable features of other modes of operation, which significantly limits the utility of an electronic device utilizing the single-mode optimized touch sensitive surface.
Attempts to correct for the conventional lack of functionality include reusing one of a selection of conventional modes of operation and relying heavily on an increase in the number of sense elements of a touch sensitive surface to mitigate the problems of conventional systems, as outlined above. This necessitates a significant increase in cost associated with increased signal processing, increased signal traces, and increased power needs, especially as the size of the touch sensor is increased. Alternative correction attempts include research and development of touch sensors comprising new materials, but these processes and materials are substantially untested in real-world use and are typically expensive to implement, especially relative to materials already in use for touch sensing.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a touch screen user interface methodology that enhances touch sensing capabilities while leveraging inexpensive touch screen manufacturing techniques.